At the Last Moment
by Tattoos for Liars
Summary: "I swear that we'll escape from this school, Ishimaru." Mondo made him a man's promise. Ishimaru will make sure he keeps it, one way or another. AU ending for 2nd trial


**AN: Hello! This is my first attempt to contribute something to this fandom that I've recently come to absolutely love. Ishimaru and Mondo are two of my favorite characters, so of course my first story for Dangan Ronpa is all about them. Feel free to interpret their relationship however you wish - I left it a bit ambiguous on whether they were romantic or platonic on purpose.**

"I killed him," Mondo choked out. His head was angled down, his pompadour casting shadows across his face, but the pain and shame in his purple eyes was still clearly reflected in the tense, defeated hunch of his broad shoulders, in the tears dripping down his face onto the floor.

"It's my fault Chihiro is dead. I killed him."

Naegi started crying weakly in the corner, his eyes closed to the truth he himself had unveiled. Togami was cold as ever, icy blue eyes uncaring behind flashing glasses, but it as much of a defense against the upcoming inevitability as Naegi's closed eyes were. Genocider Syo honestly didn't care, eyeing the condemned murderer with a smirk, while Asahina, Sakura, Hagakure, Kirigiri, and Yamada were all horrified and teary eyed to varying extents. Celestia looked away politely, giving a vague semblance of respect for the biker in doing so.

They'd all gone through this once before, one too-short week ago, but that didn't make it any easier. If anything it was harder – the survivors of the first trial had grown closer as a whole in their time together and they were all grieving the murdered and the murderer together as a group.

But no one's grief compared to Ishimaru's.

* * *

><p>His breathing hitched.<p>

Someone was sobbing, loudly. It was messy and uncoordinated and gross, speaking of a clogged throat and a soaked wet face. Whoever they were must have been choking on all that water.

Exhale. A deep, jolting intake of breath with a snot-filled sniffling. Another too-fast hitch.

Ishimaru was pretty sure his entire mind had gone into tunnel vision. All he could see was Mondo, shaking and so obviously in pain with clenched fists, and all he could taste was salt on his tongue. His entire body felt hot, too hot, overheating – the sobbing was getting louder.

The worst part, however, were the words sprawled in neon pink across the inside his own eyes like a mask.

_I killed him._

Ishimaru wanted to scream but the sound was hopelessly entangled in his ribs, sending his body into tortured shaking.

A strangled hitch. Desperate, desperate sobbing. He couldn't get enough air through the slick misery in the back of his throat to think straight. Who was crying so loudly?

The sobbing was him.

Ishimaru couldn't grasp it. It didn't make sense – Mondo wasn't a murderer! He was Ishimaru's brother, his only friend in this miserable place; he wouldn't have thrown that all away in a moment of weakness. Mondo was too strong for that!

"Sorry to interrupt this little party while it's in full swing," a nasty, mocking, _terrible_ voice intoned, "but it's time for the punishment!"

Ishimaru stopped breathing. No.

* * *

><p>"You brats can't go hoggin' all the despair." Monokuma continued, flippantly, completely aware that he was tearing Ishimaru's world apart with every word he spoke. "This is a punishment to all of mankind and a way to make them despair."<p>

Sakura said something back to Monokuma, pointing out something that was probably important, but Ishimaru had gone to deaf to everything but the turmoil swirling dangerously within his own mind.

Nothing made sense anymore.

Why, why was this happening? No, this couldn't be right – not at all! Mondo was a good person! He was! Someone else must have done it and blamed it Mondo. Whoever they were, they were clever enough to trick everyone into thinking the killer was his brother and wily enough to make the evidence point to the biker. It's not like they could trust the evidence anyway; Togami had messed with Chihiro's crime scene already. Who was the say there wasn't any damage done before that?

Then, an epiphany.

The bear must have been lying about Mondo being the real murderer.

For a moment, Ishimaru felt his fingers brush reality again. He had discovered the truth that the others had so blatantly ignored: that Monokuma was a nasty, dirty liar who was trying to put all the blame on Mondo because he wanted to watch them all die. If Mondo was falsely accused then everyone would die, Mondo included, and the murderer would go free. And even then what was holding the bear to his promise of letting the true murderer live? Monokuma just wanted them to get it wrong so he could laugh himself silly as they all went down in flames.

That was it. _That was it!_

He had to tell the others. He had to free his brother before he was murdered himself.

Monokuma giggled, hopping up onto one foot and spinning like a ballerina in obvious glee. "Alright bastards, it's almost time!" he announced.

What? No! Ishimaru swiveled to the bear, tears still flowing freely down his eyes. "W-wait!" He had to tell everyone the truth!

The bear ignored him in order to plop onto his butt in the massive velvet red throne. Monokuma burst into more uncontrolled giggles, amusement glowing in his single glowing red eye in the face of Ishimaru's misery. "Ooh, I'm so excited! I've prepared a _very_ special punishment for Mister Mondo Oowada, the Super Duper High School Outlaw Biker!"

Ishimaru threw a hand out desperately at the rejoicing bear as if he could stop him – as if he could reach out and strangle the words coming out of Monokuma's mouth until they disappeared into something harmless instead of something lethal.

"Wait!" he screamed, "Please, wait!"

"All right now, let's do this the best we can. It's time for a punishment!"

Lurching forward, Ishimaru stumbled to the throne, a scream finally ripping its way from his ribcage and out his throat. His fingers clawed the arm of the throne, gripping it so tightly he felt the slightest uneven edges dig into the skin of his fingers.

No no no, he had to stop this! _**He had to stop this now!**_

"_I'm telling you to wait, goddamn it!_" He screamed in Monokuma's face.

"I'm sorry, Ishimaru." Mondo choked out quietly. Ishimaru's head instantly turned to Mondo, his brother, his only friend, _the only person that mattered _– and cried harder. Why was Mondo accepting Monokuma's lie? He shouldn't have to die for this – for Chihiro's wrongful death – it wasn't Mondo's fault, he wasn't the one who killed him – why was he laying down like a dog and _giving in-_

Mondo spoke on; his hand curled into a fist and his eyes stayed down as if he thought he didn't deserve to even look at the hall monitor anymore. Ishimaru didn't understand. "I'm so, so sorry. I couldn't keep our promise between men."

At that final admittance Ishimaru felt his spirit crumble like a sandcastle, grains of his soul falling off into the nothingness, where everything blended into a sea of churning black and gold until there was no Ishimaru anymore – just a walking corpse with red eyes desperately searching for a matching pair of purple.

Our promise between men. _Our Promise._

* * *

><p>"<em>Though I never would have expected it, it turns out that I have enjoyed our time together today, Oowada." Ishimaru said as primly as he could manage, face flushed and body covered in sweat from the heat of the sauna. He couldn't hide his smile though – he had finally made a friend after all these years. "You're an admirable companion in this horrendous school and the first person I can say I get along with, despite your odd choice of a hairstyle."<em>

"_Odd?" Mondo protested, looking offended. "Lemme educate you a bit – this is a pompadour, Ishi, and they're the epitome of awesome. Just like big brother!"_

_Ishimaru blinked at the sudden nickname, pleasantly surprised. "Oh yes, you mentioned your big brother before. You said he was the previous leader of your biker gang, correct?"_

_Mondo stalled, clearly torn for some reason Ishimaru couldn't fathom, before nodding and returning to his previous confident state. "Yeah, big brother was the best guy you'd ever meet. If he were here we woulda been out of this freak show long ago!" he proclaimed._

_Something solid and cold sunk in Ishimaru as he remembered their current situation. His shoulders slumped, eyes lowering to the wooden floor of the sauna as the steam rose above their heads. "Too bad he'd not here then; we could all use someone who knew a way out of this place. Sometimes it feels as though at this rate we will all end up dead."_

_Mondo frowned. His new bro was clearly upset at the whole mutual killing thing despite the hall monitor's normally focused, if not optimistic, attitude and Mondo knew he couldn't let that continue. Now what would Daiya do if he were here?_

_Of course!_

_Mondo stuck out his hand directly in Ishimaru's face. At first the hall monitor didn't move, still gazing forlornly at his own bare feet, so Mondo cleared his throat as loud as he could to catch his attention. Red eyes flickered upwards, spotted the hand, then sent a questioning look to the biker._

"_What is this for?" Ishimaru inquired, leaning back to get some room from the proposed hand in his personal space._

"_A promise," Mondo declared, "or more specifically, a man's promise. We're bros now and bros look out for each other, so I promise you that some way, some how, I'll get us out of this shithole of a school. 'Never much liked these places anyway."_

_Ishimaru eyed the tanned hand carefully. "How can I trust that kind of promise? We've tried everything we can think of to get out so far and nothing has come close to providing an exit."_

_Mondo glared. "You don't get it. Big brother used to make a man's promise with me when he really meant what he was sayin', so you know I'm not just sprouting shit I can't back up. This is a promise on my honor as a man. I swear that we'll escape from this school, Ishimaru, and when we get out we'll laugh in the mastermind's face as I punch his lights out for trapping us in there in the first place. Whaddaya say?"_

_Ishimaru searched Mondo's eyes for a moment, looking for any cracks in the taller boy's conviction. Finding none, Ishimaru beamed and grasped Mondo's hand with such vigor it surprised the biker._

"_Alright then! A man's promise – I like the sound of that. We will escape this place together Mondo, and then I shall give the mastermind detention for the rest of the school year after you beat him up, for he has obviously forgotten that encouraging murder is against school rules!"_

_Mondo let out a bark of laughter but shook back anyway, content in the heat and closeness of the sauna in a way he hadn't been since starting this nightmare._

* * *

><p>Their man's promise. A promise Mondo could no longer fulfill because he was going to die before they could escape.<p>

A broken promise. A broken man.

Ishimaru let out a primal scream of rage, face soaking further in furious tears as he tore an inhuman sound of pain from his vocal cords.

The world seemed dye itself neon pink and blur into senselessness. Yet there were two points of clarity that stood out – Mondo's pained expression and Monokuma's absolutely ecstatic grin.

_Monokuma_, Ishimaru mentally snarled. Monokuma was the reason behind this, this _misery_, this clogging pain in his beloved Mondo's face that stole Ishimaru's precise voice and replaced his heart with a tight sticky ball of bubbling toxins in his chest. Monokuma, the liar who had apparently made even Mondo believe he had killed Chihiro.

Monokuma, who was within his reaching distance right now.

Ishimaru had to stop him before he killed the one thing Ishimaru held dear. Mondo was too important, too important to Ishimaru's own survival, to allow him to die without putting up a fight, and if Mondo had given up fighting for himself then Ishimaru would fight for him.

He had to kill Monokuma.

Ishimaru didn't think, only felt, as he let go of his death grip the arm of the throne, let out one final roar of pain and fury and protectiveness for his brother, and launched himself at the monochrome bear.

* * *

><p>No one had expected it to happen.<p>

They should have – they should have known that someone becoming as obviously frantic and distressed as Ishimaru was quickly becoming would do something drastic, would meet their breaking point in the dirt road and keep marching past it without a backwards glance – but in truth none of them had thought anyone, even when in the throes of grief-induced insanity, would dare attack Monokuma after Junko's merciless death in the gym. And all she had done was step on the bear.

Ishimaru, on the other hand, had mindlessly leapt across the throne, grabbed the monochrome bear by the neck, and started wrenching his round head towards himself while shoving his body away with his other arm, effectively trying to behead Monokuma on the spot with pure force.

Monokuma instantly started flailing, shrieking about rules and punishments, but Ishimaru was deaf to his shouts. Asahina gasped, horrified; Togami startled in surprise at the hall monitor's audaciousness and started openly cursing his idiocy; Naegi and Kirigiri were yelling at Ishimaru to stop, please, you're going to die for attacking the principle, stop; but in the end, none of them moved except one.

"Ishi! What are you doin' – do you have a death wish – _stop!_" Mondo yelled. He leaped at the hall monitor, grabbing onto his uniform sleeves as he desperately tried to pull his friend away. Why was Ishimaru doing this, he couldn't do this, he would be killed for doing this and Mondo wasn't supposed to let that happen goddammit! It was his job to protect his bro until the end and get Ishimaru out of here!

Mondo had barely got his hands on Ishimaru, who was still screaming incoherently as he tried to rip the bear in half with his bare hands, when a thick metal collar connected to a long chain shot out of nowhere and clamped around Mondo's neck.

He yelled and tried to fight, because he had to stop Ishimaru before he was it was too late, he had to save him – but it was no use. The unrelenting metal was stronger than his hard-worn flesh and Mondo was dragged away on the ground yelling Ishimaru's name as he begged him to stop.

The last thing Mondo saw in the trial room before the chain dragged him down the hallway to his death was Ishimaru finally clawing the head of Monokuma off of his body with bloody hands and a victorious grin, only for the bear's single red eye to suddenly brighten and the whole thing explode right in Ishimaru's face.

Mondo screamed.

**AN: So this whole one-shot is based on the fact that when I first saw the 2****nd**** trial I swore that Ishimaru would attack Monokuma and be killed for it. He certainly was mad enough with grief to do it, in my personal opinion, so I decided to be an awful person and write an AU where that actually happened. Most of the dialogue during the trial is taken from a sub of the show, though I did edit some of the lines to better fit the mood I was going for. **

**Also, I know for a fact I'm not the only one who thought something like this would happen, but that's a story for another day.**


End file.
